Pusillanimous
by Alpaca desu
Summary: Levi was very sure that she's dead. He saw how she stabbed herself in fear in the midst of the expedition. Yet the next day he found her sitting on his bed, watching him come out of the shower with an…eager expression. Levi thought he must have been going insane from all the deaths he had seen.
1. Chapter 1

**WARNING: contains coarse language**

**I can't believe this. I'm pairing up humanity's strongest and cutest with a dead, unnamed OC. I should apologize to Levi. Sorry not sorry.**

**I'm not giving her a name because she's dead and I'm mean (and lazy and uncreative and out of ideas). She doesn't need a name. **

**Since this is a fic with an unnamed OC, this can also be LevixReader. **

**So the pairing is either LevixOC or LevixYou. Whichever you prefer. **

**Yay.**

**You can also insert your own OC.**

**Yay. \(^o^)/**

**OK, so.**

**Shingeki no Kyojin belongs to ****Hajime Isayama**

**Unnamed OC belongs to ****me**

**or**

**You belong to ****your parents or whoever you belong to**

* * *

After she died, nothing much had changed for Levi.

He still had that same old emotionless look on his face. Thin straight eyebrows, cold steely orbs, lips that rarely curved up. All his feelings that he had locked away in a forgotten part of his heart had not changed either.

It was as if she never really died.

Even though he himself had been the only one to witness her pitiful death. How she stabbed her own heart, her heart that was supposed to be dedicated to the cause, as three 15-meter class titans cornered her. Her action was pusillanimous and it boiled his blood.

Why did she even choose to be in the Survey Corps? The Survey Corps is not a place for the weak.

She should have fought to the end. No matter how tiny her chance of survival was. Levi could have saved her if she fought just a little bit longer. She was practically in his line of sight. Just a couple of meters away. He just needed her to buy him three damn seconds.

"…Fuck…"

Levi threw himself face-first on his bed, not caring if his filth-covered uniform was tainting his new, fresh sheets. His face barely showed it, but he was drained both physically and mentally. He couldn't care less about the damn sheets.

It was another failed expedition with a lot of casualties. He was never going to admit this to anyone but he actually had nightmares after each expedition. Not of titans but of watching more of his comrades die. No matter how many times he watched his comrades die one after another, no matter how used to it he was, he still felt painfully hollow and there's nothing he can do about it.

With meager strength, he rolled around on his back and exhaled shakily. The moonlight peeked through the gaps between the curtains and fell on his slightly relaxed features. Levi kept his eyes opened to stare at nothing for a few more minutes before he let them slid shut and relaxed completely.

The image of her face contorted in blissful pain flashed in his eyes once again and Levi's eyebrow twitched by a tiny fraction before he fell asleep.

He saw more of his other subordinates die yet only her dying face bothered him this much. He wondered why. Probably because she's a stupid, weak, cowardly brat and he hated how she died for nothing. Or probably because he felt sorry that he couldn't save her in time.

_Tch, shitty brat._

* * *

After she had become a ghost, she realized that nothing much had changed.

When she was still living and breathing, in the middle of the night she would lurk at the corridor, just pacing aimlessly trying to tire and bore herself to sleep. Even though daily training was pretty tiring, she still couldn't doze off. Occasionally, she would step outside to the balcony and climb up to sit on the roof and stare at the moon like the sentimental damsel she was.

Now that she's dead, she didn't need to sleep. Yet, she still did her night routine because she did not have many things to do.

As she was wandering, she pondered to herself about a lot of things that she never dared to think about while she was still living. She thought about death. Her death, her comrades' death, and her parents' death. She remembered a long time ago her mother once said that death is not a goodbye forever. At her deathbed, her mother promised that they would meet again in heaven and live happily ever after.

She sighed in frustration. So where is this heaven she promised?

Screw her younger self for stupidly believing what her mother said.

What exactly did she died for?

She waited so long just to meet her parents. She even thought of speeding up her death by joining the Survey Corps. She was even a tiny bit happy to die.

A tiny droplet of tear escaped her eye. She let it roll off on its own without wiping it. She can't feel the wetness on her cheek anyways.

Being dead was not like how she had imagined. She still felt the same boredom, the same loneliness, and the same sadness. It felt as torturing as being alive. It felt as if she never really died.

A door creaked open and she stopped dead, pun intended, in her tracks. Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, someone's going to see her!

Still unmoving, she mentally trashed around in panic. Her head turned slowly, like a creeper, to the source of the noise to see who it was. She desperately hoped it was just some sleepwalking idiot.

On the other side of the corridor was Squad Leader Hanji. And she was definitely not sleepwalking. She had her uniform on and she was fully awake, her doe eyes looking through her goggles at the other side of the corridor where she was standing back to her, head turned almost 180 degrees to meet Hanji's stare.

_Well, fuck._

Hanji's face remained stoic, probably because of shock, as she stepped towards her. The other female remained in her spot, thinking of a non-creepy greeting and explanation.

She turned around and opened her mouth to explain herself but stopped when Hanji went pass through her like she was just an invisible blob of smoke.

_Huh? _

Okay, so she was invisible to living people then? She nodded absent-mindedly and smiled in relief at the revelation. That made things easier.

Her smile broke into an ear-splitting grin in a second as a mischievous idea popped in her mind.

She's invisible. She could prank whomever she wanted and never get caught. She could point the blame to someone else too.

But then again, she never had a friend she wanted to prank or a person she had a grudge on. She had always been alone, during meals, training, and bath time. She had never established a relationship during her lifetime at all. Come to think of it, if she had made no ties to the world while she was living, did anyone notice that she died?

Squad Leader Hanji probably didn't even remember her face, name, or presence. She shouldn't even bother to explain herself if she was caught earlier.

A frown replaced her grin as she continued her steps down the corridor solemnly. Loneliness kicked in once again and she held back her depression.

There's really nothing she can do about it. Death is boring. How long will she have to keep on wandering aimlessly like this? It had been only 13 hours since her death and she's bored to _death_.

She wanted to disappear. Why can't she disappear for good?

* * *

Levi was forced to crack open his eyelids when sunlight began to seep into his room through the curtains and onto his face. He stayed still for a few seconds blinking away the remaining sleepiness until he realized that he was till in his uniform. The same uniform he had been wearing for the expedition yesterday.

His cleanliness OCD instantly kicked in and he shivered in disgust, jumped out of his bed and marched to his bathroom straight in mere three seconds. How could he sleep in that filth? He cursed himself along the way and turned on the water, preparing the tub for a long, intense, washing session.

He's sooo going to scrub non-stop till at least an hour or more. Till his skin turn raw and possibly bleed.

Okay, that last sentence was an exaggeration.

* * *

She had walked around the base multiple times and met several people who wasn't aware of her presence by the time the sun showed itself yet she was not tired at all.

It was because she's already dead. She blinked at her own deadpan humor.

She stopped walking and leaned on a wall. That was enough walking, she decided. Really, she needed to find another hobby. She can't just walk around the base forever. The base sure is huge but it grew duller and duller every time she repeated her tour.

Maybe she needed to find another place to haunt. Or she should just go berserk and haunt people instead.

She slapped herself back to sanity. _No haunting people_, she reprimanded herself.

Her eyes darted around and stopped at a door. A certain door that had her curiosity since she first entered the Survey Corps.

The door leading to Corporal Levi's room.

Well, she's invisible, right? The Corporal wouldn't even know, right?

With shaky, hesitant steps, she approached the tall wooden door. She stood there for a moment, tracing her fingertip against the bronze doorknob.

Should she enter normally or try passing through it?

Just to be safe, she chose to do the latter.

She held her breath although it was not necessary really, and pushed her airy body through the door.

Her breathing quickened, she didn't know it was possible for ghosts, and she darted her eyes around the room taking in the whole interior design and checking for the presence of the short man.

The Corporal was nowhere in the room but she could hear water splashing in the bathroom so she assumed he must be in there, taking a bath.

Naked. Wet. Lathered in soap.

And her mind went down the gutter.

She snickered at her own perverted thoughts and continued to inspect the Corporal's spotless clean room, restraining herself from touching anything in the room. Just to be safe. Who knew if the Corporal could sense something amiss if she touched anything?

Will the Corporal sense her presence if she stayed here while he changed? The thought was seriously tempting her. Don't judge her, okay? She died a virgin so she at least deserved to see a little of, um, you know, skin.

Eyes sharpened and lips pursed in determination, she made up her sick decision and plopped down to sit on the Corporal's bed, waiting for the free show.

She's not completely sick, you know! She promised that she would leave afterwards and never bother the Corporal again. Right, next victim will be Commander Erwin.

A snicker escaped her lips again. Commander Erwin must be hotter than Corporal Levi. He is taller after all. It's a secret but she had a thing for tall guys, because taller guys have, uh, that, uh…

Her train of dirty thoughts was abruptly dismissed as she heard the door clicked open. She bit her bottom lip in anticipation and her fingernails dug into the sides of her pants.

Oh. My.

Shoot. She can't. She just can't. The scene was too much for her virgin eyes. She should've put more thought and mental preparations for this. This is bad. This is just no good. She's going to—

"You… Why the flying fuck are you on my bed?"

The girl jumped at the Corporal's calm but sharp tone.

"H-huh? Uh…"

Crap.

* * *

**Haha yea, I don't know why I had the strong urge to write this. It's just this had been on my mind since last year and I can't resist to write this down.**

**Should I continue? **

**What am I doing with my life I should be doing my assignment. orz **


	2. Chapter 2

**Shingeki no Kyojin belongs to Hajime Isayama**

**This piece of fanfiction belongs to me**

**Unnamed OC belongs to me**

**or**

**You belong to humanity's sexiest Levi Heichou yumyum**

* * *

Even while she was still alive, her existence was vacant.

Only voicing out her thoughts when it was absolutely necessary, only showing sufficient skills to pass the military training, never showing up in urgent times, never needing help from others, everything she did was deliberately to make her seem irrelevant, replaceable, and invisible.

Although her living spirit wasn't exactly the brightest, she wasn't suicidal, not even close to being depressed. It's just that she was not particularly excited about living nor was she eager to die.

She lived without a purpose and in the end she died without a reason.

It was only fitting of her.

* * *

Apparently, she wasn't invisible to everyone.

It was silent and tense for a moment and the girl flinched as Levi's sharp oculars bore holes into her damned soul.

Levi was aghast. He desperately tried to take in the situation rationally and sort his rapid thoughts without losing his shit but that proved to be difficult.

She died yesterday. Levi saw it. How she unsheathed her blade and pierced it through her left chest. How her eyeballs bulge out from their sockets at the immense pain and how her eyelids finally slid shut as she lost her consciousness _forever_.

He almost flinched at the ugly memory.

They did not have the chance to retrieve her corpse before retreating. How the hell can a lifeless corpse transport itself all the way from outside the walls into his room?

Even if the shitty brat had somehow survived, she couldn't have been here. On his bed, looking livelier and dumber than usual.

_Is this some sort of a sick prank by that shitty glasses?_ Levi hoped that was the case because he wouldn't want to think of any other hypothesis. Yesterday's piling casualties had shook his mind and it had turned into a mess after he woke up from last night's bad dream. He feared that he might be close to losing his sanity.

_Fuck_. Don't tell him he's actually hallucinating.

Levi approached the foreign entity with long strides, stopping just a few inches away from it to analyze it.

She was breathing; he could tell from the way her chest rose up and down subtly and rhythmically. From this Levi concluded that it must be hallucination because there's no way a dead person could breathe.

He felt pathetic and embarrassed. Just how bad did her death affected him that he imagined things like this?

His hands subconsciously reached out to her face, his fingertips grazing the tip of her nose then, trailing to cup her cheeks where it finally stopped and stayed.

Wow, this is serious. He could even _feel_ her.

The girl was too scatterbrained to react to Levi's touch. Her lips kept on opening and closing like a goldfish, the urge to blurt out something, _anything,_ was so strong but she was too astonished to form words. She even forgot her initial intention to ogle on Levi's dripping wet half-naked body, which was practically inches away from her petrified face.

There were so much questions swirling inside their brains and yet they could only stare at each other, trying to find the answers in each other's faces, to no success naturally.

Levi eventually realized what he was doing with his hand and pulled back. Even if she was just a figment of his wild imagination, that was quite out of character of him to touch her affectionately. He finally noticed her comical expression and decided to casually tease her as he regained his senses back.

"What's up with your face?"

The girl blinked once and reached up to her face and began to rub on her cheeks furiously. "Huh? Is there something on my face?"

His body instinctively recoiled upon hearing that. He didn't expect her to actually _reply. _Well, he did ask her a question and she was supposed to reply; that's how a conversation works but _illusions don't talk_. That's what he believed.

Several ideas crossed his mind after her response. Choices like consulting to Hanji about going bonkers, strangling this girl he's imagining so she would just die again and never bother him again, and just ignoring her till he could forget about her presence.

He kept his grim eyes on her as he made up his mind. He'd rather kill himself than talking about this to Hanji as that woman was much crazier than he would ever be. It didn't have to be Hanji, actually. He had more understanding subordinates like Petra, but his swelling pride wouldn't let him. He was the Corporal after all; he had a reputation to uphold. Killing her was also out of the question since he couldn't kill his any of his subordinates. What was left for him was to ignore her presence.

The Corporal turned around, stalked away to his wardrobe, opened it and picked out his standard clothes. He then returned to his bedside and laid them down.

It's just his mind playing tricks, she's not real, he convinced himself.

The girl's wide, unblinking eyes never left him as he did so. She silently wondered what he was trying to do as she scooted away as far away from him towards the bedside table.

What he did next was so incomprehensible and outrageous that she had to scream her lungs out, grab the candleholder from the table and flung it to the direction of the currently towel-less man.

The impact tilted Levi's head to the side by 90 degrees with an audible thud. He wrapped his towel back around his waist as he tilted his head back and turned it around to send her his most ominous glare. The girl winced in his place upon realizing what she had done.

"What the fuck did you just do to me, you shitty brat?"

She bit back a whimper and scrambled for a response. "W-wha-what are trying to do!? You…you…pervert!"

"I am trying to change. What else would I be doing!?"

"In front of a girl!? You degenerate pervert!"

"Degenerate pervert? Me?"

Completely disregarding that she might be just his hallucination, he approached her in long strides. His left hand clutched his towel in place and the other held the candleholder she threw earlier. Stopping in front of her sorry ass, he slammed the candleholder back on the table, grabbed her by the collar and leaned his face to hers in an intimidating fashion.

By then she had realized that she was in _big_ trouble. She was silently grateful that she couldn't feel anything so she won't feel the pain Levi will inflict on her.

"Listen, brat. This is my room. I do whatever the fuck I want in my room. If anyone's a degenerate pervert, it's _you_."

"M-me?"

"Yes, you. For sneaking into a man's room."

That reminded her of her initial intention for being here. Her lips curled into a nervous smile and her hand flew to her cheek, scratching it even though she didn't feel any itch.

Levi sighed and let her go. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and leaned back.

"Fuck it. You're just the product of my hallucination anyway."

Her head turned mechanically to his direction as soon as she heard him.

_Gosh, he thought he was hallucinating?_

"Lance Corporal Levi, this is real life."

The only response she got was a long, hard stare.

"You're not hallucinating. I'm real. I had somehow became a…stray spirit," elaborated her.

"Are you trying to say that you're a ghost?"

"Uhh, yeah, I don—"

"Countless of my subordinates have fallen and none of them had ever showed up as a ghost in front of me. Even the ones with the strongest sense of purpose and will to live. You're just one pitiful soldier. No, you're not worthy of being called a soldier since you _fucking stabbed yourself with your own blade_ in the battlefield. You were trying to run away from your duties. A soldier can never be so vulnerable and pathetic as you, fucking _suicidal_ brat."

She was a bit taken aback at his speech. She wasn't hurt by his harsh words; she was just surprised that the Corporal was so talkative.

"Um… Your point being…?"

"I don't believe in ghosts."

"Neither did I. Yet, here I am."

And she got that same stare from before in response. She sighed in exasperation and crossed her arms.

"If I'm just a fantasy, then why didn't I act the way you want and say things you want to hear?"

"If you're a ghost, then why are you here?"

The girl went silent. She casted her eyes downward and her frame stiffened.

"…It's not like I wanted to be here. You just happened to be the only one who could see me."

Lies. She wanted to ogle on him and she didn't expect him to be able to see her, but she won't admit that to him, of course.

"I personally don't believe in this sort of bullshit, I just happened to heard this somewhere, but shouldn't the spirit of dead people go somewhere up there?"

Her eyes looked up to him. "Heaven?"

"Whatever you call it."

She smiled in melancholy as she remembered why she wanted to die. To meet her parents in heaven. It turned out that heaven never existed and now she's stuck in this world forever.

Levi decided to spew up more insults to fill the silence. "You've always been alone. I've never seen you with anyone. You never stood out and you don't really have any connections to the world, don't you? Nobody noticed that you died or lived. Nobody came and asked to see your corpse. Maybe, even God had forgotten that you existed and didn't notice that you died. He probably forgot to bring your soul to that place…"

"Heaven." She filled in.

"Yea."

He didn't understand why he had brought up God when he didn't believe in God. He didn't believe in Heaven or ghosts either, yet there was the talk. At this point, he couldn't bother to bring himself to understand any shit that had came out of his mouth anymore.

She did not get it. Why was she hurt when the Corporal said all that? She was always alone by her own choice. It was what she wanted and what she got.

Levi sensed her changed emotions and decided to shut up. He did not want a ghost, moreover a sad ghost trailing him. He walked back to his clothes and decided to just roll with it, accepting her existence.

"Hey, I'm going to change now. Close your eyes if you don't want to see."

"I'm sorry for bothering you. I'll just…find someone else to haunt."

She stood up to leave but Levi's call halted her.

"Stay. It's an order. I won't let you mess with any of my subordinates' head. And don't throw anything at my head, brat."

She bit her lip in an attempt to suppress a giggle and sat back down.

"Understood."

"Close your eyes."

"Nope." She smirked.

"You fucking _suicidal _brat."

* * *

**Since our corporal is short, the chapters shall be short as well. /shot/**

**Jk jk, I'm sorry if the length of the chapter wasn't satisfying. I've been busy with my assignments so this was all I could manage. I could've written more but then I'll end up updating next next week (cuz next week is CNY I'll be busy lol) and I would probably have lost my interest in this story lol I need to update weekly to make sure I won't discontinue this. **

**Thanks for the views, reviews, follows, and favorites. **

**Shout-out to **15interestingfacts** (I fucking love you, woman.), **Guest** (thank you! Yea I was listening to sad songs while writing this fic so it turned out sad haha), **Nefarious Paramour** (thank you so much for giving this a chance! I actually intended to make this an OC fic but I just can't think of her name and appearance yet so for now it can be interpreted as the reader in case if the reader wanted to imagine what she looks like. I'll get to revealing her name and basic appearance not any time soon but eventually ;)), and **Combustibility** (thanks I'm so happy you dropped by! haha I love your Eren one-shot!) for giving me feedback and making my day! **

**And I know you've probably noticed by now that English is not my first language. I've never gotten good grades in English, so I apologize for all the mistakes in my writing, be it bad grammar, awkward wording, or anything else. Feel free to point out all my mistakes, as I am unaware of them, so that I can fix them before more readers had to witness them~ **

**Shiet, sorry this author note is too long. I just…I just wanted to talk to you guys… /shot/ /dead/ /cya/**


	3. Chapter 3

**Shingeki no Kyojin belongs to Hajime Isayama**

**This piece of fanfiction belongs to me**

**Unnamed OC belongs to me**

**or**

**You belong to humanity's cleanest Levi Heichou**

* * *

Ironically, Levi found her much livelier after she died.

He swore that he had never heard her voice before when she was still living. Yet after she died, there she was, _giggling_, sitting on his bed, swinging her legs back and forth, and staring him with perverted eyes altogether at the same time oh so casually.

She even dared to openly watch him change. It was either she was that shameless or dying had made her forgot that he was her superior and he deserved _respect_.

It was his day off and Levi thought that he was going to do some cleaning in his already spotless, at least to her, room. Because there could be nothing more productive than dusting a dustless dresser.

But that was normal since this is the famous clean-freak corporal she was referring to. The thing that actually sent her into a fit of uncontrollable giggles was his choice of tool and method of cleaning.

The short man was kneeling in front of the dresser and he had his ass up in the air. His hand was outstretched, trying to reach a spot under the dresser with a toothbrush. A fucking _toothbrush_. Seems that Levi deemed a regular duster too mainstream for such a hardcore clean freak like him.

Levi was not sure if it was him, or her giggles seemed to get louder and more high-pitched by every second.

Seriously, that giggle was the most annoying giggle he had ever heard.

"Can you sit somewhere else? I just made the bed. You're messing it up again."

"I don't get why people make their beds. You'll just mess it up at night anyway."

"Don't tell me you never make your bed."

She grinned. Levi showed mild disgust in his face. The conversation stopped and it was silent. For a short moment. Then she resumed her giggling.

"What's so funny?" Levi finally asked with a tinge of irritation. Levi had a strong feeling that she was laughing at him; what else was to laugh about in the room?

She suppressed her giggle for a second to blurt out a quick answer. "Nothing."

Of course. Nothing. How could he forget that she was fucking mental?

Levi decided to try to ignore her, which was of course difficult.

"Why a toothbrush?"

"It gets in the crevices easily. It gets the job done better."

"It's not very efficient though…"

"It cleans better. Now shut up, brat."

She giggled some more. Levi felt like he wanted to murder the brat. Too bad it was technically impossible.

After a few minutes of Levi's futile struggle, she decided to intervene since she was breathless from giggling and she was positive she would die a second time if this were to continue.

"Hey, need a hand? I could reach those spots easily, you know."

Levi scoffed. "Your arms aren't any longer than mine."

"But my arms can pass through solid objects."

He withdrew his arm and turned his head to face the girl who was smirking at him. Cheeky.

Levi threw the toothbrush at her direction and she caught it ungracefully, not expecting the man to suddenly fling it at her. She walked over to face the now upright Levi and grinned her trademark mischievous grin.

"What's the magic word?" She sang, twirling around the toothbrush in one hand.

"Go make yourself useful, brat."

"Say _please_?"

"If you don't want to do it then fine." Levi snatched the toothbrush back. "Stay useless."

"Fine, I'll do it. Geez."

She pulled the toothbrush back from his grip and crouched down, reaching the spots effortlessly. It was a victorious moment for her and it felt kind of strange since she was used to being average and uncompetitive.

The girl stood up and handed the dirty toothbrush back to him.

"And that's how you do it."

"Good. Now continue with the desk and nightstands."

"Wha—?"

Levi shoved a rag and a bucket of water into her hands.

"Get into every small crevices. Make sure it's clean without a speck of dust left."

"Hey! I never said I—"

Before she could finish, Levi had entered his bathroom, to clean it she assumed, and slammed the door shut.

"Slave driver!"

No response from him.

"I'm not doing it."

She spoke to herself, dumping the bucket along with the rag on the floor before stalking back to his bed to sit on it.

Her arms and legs crossed, eyes darting around aimlessly, bored. She lasted for about a couple of minutes before she finally gave in due to boredom. There was not anything else to do and she found this depressing.

She needed a life.

Snickering dryly at her own joke, she lifted up the bucket and rag from the floor and began scrubbing.

If she was alive, she would have wished death. Ironic.

She had to stop with these jokes. It's more depressing than funny.

* * *

Everyday had been pretty much the same after she died. Not that everyday was especially different when she was alive. But when she was alive, she felt that the things she did was productive, as for now, whatever she did seemed unnecessary. Like she did it just for the hell of it. Because there was nothing else to do, which was true.

She wouldn't say it out loud but, truthfully, it wasn't that bad when Levi was around. Not that she liked him or anything; it was just she felt less lonely with him around. And Levi was the only one who could acknowledge her existence. Plus, it was always fun to annoy him.

On the other hand, Levi felt like his life had been more eventful. Not that it was uneventful before. Killing titans and cleaning was far than uneventful.

After her ghost confronted (more like peeped) him that day, he felt like he valued human lives even more. He understood that casualties weren't something that could be completely avoided in expeditions, but every soldier that died had a life and a future. He wanted everyone's death to have a reason. Unlike _her_.

She had been low profile and there was not really much that he could recall about her. But out of all the little bits he could recall from their rare encounters, he remembered pretty well that despite her efforts to stay transparent, she had always stood out to him.

For what reason, he did not know. Probably because she looked so gloomy. No, lifeless was more fitting.

For the past few weeks Levi had wondered why was she haunting him. Why only _her_? He suspected that it had something to do with how unfulfilling her life was before death.

Even so, why _him_?

* * *

"Can you stop tailing me?"

"Why? Am I bothering you?"

"Clearly."

"I thought you've gotten used to it. It's been a month after all."

Levi stopped in his tracks and turned around to face her. He made sure that the corridor was empty before he eyed the girl with his usual glare.

And as per usual, the girl responded with her playful grin. She did that a lot. Come to think of it, had she even smiled at all when she was still alive?

"I'm going to have a meeting with Erwin. It's confidential. That means you have to leave, in case if you don't get it."

"Come on! It's not like I can tell anyone. Isn't it fine?"

"No. You're distracting."

"How so? You could just ignore me. Isn't that like your talent? Ignoring people."

"You're a special kind of distracting. You're obnoxious."

"Gee, thanks for making me feel special."

Levi pivoted and continued walking, checking if she was still following him out of the corner of his eyes.

She pouted. "I don't have anything else to do other than following you around. You know that, right?"

Levi didn't respond. She stopped and sighed. She loved to annoy Levi but sometimes she thought that she should stop bothering him. She did not want Levi to hate her. He's the only one she had and the thought of him rejecting her presence was seriously scaring her.

She could not remember and understand how she managed to live without anyone before.

Sighing, she spun and headed the opposite direction, not before making funny faces at his back.

Levi noticed her fading presence and relief washed over him.

About that meeting with Erwin, he lied. And that was not the only lie he told her. He lied to her a lot these past few days.

For the past few weeks, Levi had been…_researching _on her. It was not stalking; he refused to call it that since he was definitely, positively _not _a stalker.

He had looked through the documents and biographies of all the deceased soldiers. It was a hell lot of papers and files. They should make a special library for it. Like seriously he's not even exaggerating. A _lot_ of people died. Searching for her papers were painstakingly time consuming since he did not know her name, and, in the end, he failed to find her biography.

Imagine it. Hours of swimming through all those papers in secret with no result.

It was frustrating. Levi was so close to ripping all his hair out. He was so tempted to just ask her, _what's your name_? But no. He was paranoid that she'll know he's _researching_ on her.

He had tried looking around, listening in to his subordinates' conversation, and no one brought up her. It wasn't a shocker, to be honest, since she had no friends. He didn't mean to be offensive though.

So he decided to search her room. But before that, he had to search _for_ her room.

He didn't know what her room was like, but somehow, Levi had a feeling he'll knew when he found it. Her room must not have been cleared out, he assumed.

The headquarters was huge. This had been his third day peeking and listening through doors to check if it was empty. And he had to do it discreetly too. This took a lot of effort. If she somehow found out about his research on her, she better be grateful that he's willing to waste his limited spare time on her.

He took a few flights of stairs, recalling where he left off yesterday. Scanning his surroundings, he made his way through the corridors soundlessly and finally stopped at a door.

First, he placed his head sideways on the door as close as possible to check for any sounds that will indicate that the room wasn't empty. In attempt to focus, he closed his eyes and listened for a few seconds. Once confirmed that there was no noise, he twisted the doorknob in slow motion, wincing mentally every time it squeaked or clicked.

Through the 5 centimeters gap, Levi peeked in. Clear. He opened the door wider and slipped inside.

It was tidy yet dusty. A sign that it was uninhabited. Levi crinkled his nose and tried to ignore the dust, his fingers twitched ever so slightly, itching to grab a duster and clean the shit out of the filthy room.

He looked around for any personal belongings, journals, letter, _anything_. Opening drawers after drawers, he still found nothing. Must not been her room.

Levi made sure the room looked untouched and left.

The search continued for hours till it was almost lunchtime. It was getting tiresome but Levi was used to being tired. He had lost count of the number of doors he had walked in. It was probably the seventy-third door or something, when he found it.

The room was dusty and generally tidy, except for the _bed_. It was unmade.

Her words from the other day instantly surfaced in his mind.

"_I don't get why people make their beds. You'll just mess it up at night anyway."_

Levi was positive that the room was unoccupied because no one could possibly sleep in a room as dusty as this. Must have been a couple of weeks without cleaning.

Overlooking the unmade bed, he began his investigation.

The wardrobe was really disorganized. The uniforms were on the hanger and ironed but the rest, the sleepwear and civilian clothes, were just balled up and shoved at the bottom. Levi saw a skirt and he concluded that it was a female's room, unless someone was a closet cross dresser. The uniforms were about her size too.

He went through all the drawers in the room but found nothing. Just a dictionary and Levi could imagine her reading it on her spare time. She just seemed like the sort of person to do so, because she had no better thing to do. No papers or pens or any writing utensils spotted though.

That was strange. How did she communicate with her relatives? Did she have telepathy powers or something?

Or did she not connect with her relatives at all?

Did she have any relatives?

It made perfect sense if she doesn't. That might be the cause of her unusual behavior.

While pondering, he unconsciously made his way over to the bed and started to tidy it. Damn OCD.

He lifted the duvet roughly and laid it smoothly over the bed, folding and tucking it to fit the bed. And something fell out of the bed.

Levi's eyebrows raised by the tiniest millimeter in interest. He craned his neck to see what it was.

It was a small book.

Finally, a lead.

Levi left the bed half done and crouched down to get the book. It was leather-bound, not bigger than the size of his palms, and the papers were mildly oxidized. It looked pretty old and worn down. A lilac plain bookmark with a badly drawn kitten and flowers on it was slipped right in the middle of the book.

He flipped through the pages. Nothing was written in it.

"What the hell…"

Just when he thought that he got a clue.

Levi rolled his eyes. He decided to pocket the book. Just in case if there were some hidden clues in it. Probably words written with lemon juice or something.

That's very unlikely. What is this? A mystery slash detective story?

Before leaving, Levi decided to mess up the bed again. That girl might return here and when she sees the bed made, he'll get found out for sure.

* * *

**This took so long, I know. Sorry about that. Had lots of things going on and I'm tired from school and stuff. I wrote like half of this in class secretly by the way haha XD Not during lecture though. Because I'm a good student.**

**Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for sticking around and to new readers, if any, hello! **


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